NE BUSINESS BUREAU
BENGALURU, APR 16
E-commerce major Amazon on Friday said it is committed to working with government agencies and partners to create a “conducive ecosystem” to lower entry barriers for Indian businesses to start and expand their exports business.
https://twitter.com/amazonIN/status/1382989614227415043?s=20
Amazon Vice-President (International Marketplaces and Retail) Eric Broussard said more than 70,000 businesses in India are part of the company’s global selling programme that enables merchants to reach customers across the world.
We are honoured to have Mr.Sanjiv Mehta kick start Day 2 of #AmazonSmbhav. With his insights on what it means to build a global Indian brand, we're sure all you innovators & builders will be left feeling invigorated for what promises to be another exciting day of learning. pic.twitter.com/T9d9nnTeIs
— Amazon India (@amazonIN) April 16, 2021
“…thousands of our sellers from India played a key role in serving customers globally during this period (of pandemic)…In this changed world, the pace of technology adoption has accelerated. There has been a structural shift in online shopping behaviour,” he said at the Amazon Smbhav Summit.
Today, Eric Broussard joined us to talk about the immense opportunity for Indian brands & MSMEs to go global & leverage the trend of global customers shopping on a global marketplace. Dreaming about taking your business global? #AbSmbhavHai! pic.twitter.com/8kxu1ZZV8Y
— Amazon India (@amazonIN) April 16, 2021
He pointed out that more customers are now coming online for their shopping needs, a trend that is being seen in the US, Europe, India and other parts of the world.
“As we emerge from this unprecedented pandemic, the cross-border e-commerce industry will usher in a new era of growth opportunities through digitisation and tech innovation. Businesses shall take this opportunity to reflect and reshape strategies for long-term growth,” Broussard said.
Amazon Global Selling will continue to make exports easier, simpler and more accessible to businesses of all sizes, he added.
He cited the example of global sale events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, wherein Indian businesses on Amazon Global Selling had seen a 50 percent growth in business year-on-year.
“The host of initiatives from the government to strengthen manufacturing, nurture entrepreneurship and promote digital enablement are playing a key role in supporting the development of global businesses. This puts India in a great position to expand further and build global Indian brands,” Broussard said.
He added that the company’s teams in India are working with industry players, state and central governments and other partners to “create a conducive ecosystem to lower the entry barrier for Indian businesses to start or expand their exports business”.
The top executive said with Amazon Global Selling, Indian exporters can list their products on 17 international marketplaces/websites of Amazon, get access to 150 million paid Prime members and over 300 million customers in 200 countries and territories across the world.
In January last year, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos had announced an investment of $1 billion at the maiden edition of Amazon Smbhav event to digitally enable 10 million Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSMEs), enable e-commerce exports worth $10 billion and create one million additional jobs in India by 2025.
Earlier this month, Amazon said more than 2.5 lakh new sellers have joined Amazon since the announcement, and that it has enabled more than $3 billion in exports through its Global Selling programme.
Broussard outlined a new initiative ”Spotlight Northeast” by Amazon India that is focusing on enabling e-commerce exports from the North East region of India. Under this, Amazon will forge partnerships with local trade organizations and work with SMBs to boost exports of key categories like tea, spices and honey.
“The way I see it, there is a huge opportunity to create global brands from India. Already we have some great examples (like Vahdam Teas and Wow Shampoo) of Indian businesses starting from scratch and building successful global brands with customers across the world,” he added.
He suggested that brands looking at tapping into the international demand should “think global, build selection based on customer demand, and focus on building global brands that customers trust”.
Stakeholders, policy-makers have to give special focus to SMEs, says Jitendra Singh
Union minister Jitendra Singh Friday said all stakeholders and policy-planners will have to give a special focus to small and medium businesses when the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
Addressing the ”Amazon Sambhav online Summit”, Singh said the post-COVID economy of India will look for unexplored potentials and under such circumstances, the hitherto lesser utilised resources from lesser projected regions will assume an important role.
In the aftermath of COVID-19, all the stakeholders and policy-planners will have to give a special focus to small and medium businesses as well as the sustainability of new or recent Start-Ups, he said at the summit – “Unlocking Infinite Possibilities for India”.
Singh, the Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), said that in times like this, joint initiatives and joint ventures will be imperative to put back on track all that had tended to get off the track due to COVID-19 related turbulence.
In this regard, he cited the example of bamboo from Northeast and other vast resources in the North Eastern Region as a whole.
The minister said every adversity is accompanied with some virtue and one of the positive aspects of tumultuous COVID-19 phase has been that it prompted all to look for new avenues, new potentials and new resources to supplement the economy and make up for the deficit accruing as a result of the pandemic.
This, in turn, has led to a situation, wherein the Northeastern region has an opportunity to emerge as the business destination of the entire Indian subcontinent, he said.
Lauding the Amazon”s new initiative titled “Northeast Spotlight”, Singh said this is indicative of the fact that even the business world of India has begun to realise where it should be looking to make a further headway in a post-COVID economy.
He said when all the known conventional resources and potentials across the country appeared to have got saturated or exhausted, the Northeast will still have something to offer and that gives it a pivotal role in the times to come.
